John Taylor

, ''Check out all my video games,'' says John Taylor, 32 going on11. He points to a collection that rests under a display of footballmementos and opposite a fish tank filled with piranhas. ''I'm in hereplaying all the time. This is sort of like the Boys' Room.''Taylor, the San Francisco 49ers' hyper, happy-go-lucky, heretoforeprivate wide receiver, is a child inside an athlete's body, a grownman who has found no compelling reason to relinquish the tastes andpace of his youth. An intelligent and thoughtful soul, a determinedhusband and father, a universally respected presence on a team ofglamorous icons, Taylor has all the markings of successful adulthood.The only catch is, Taylor is still a boy at heart. ''He's Dennis theMenace,'' says 49er president Carmen Policy. ''If he were eight,you'd say he's 'all boy.' ''A childlike sense of abandon has helped Taylor forge a quietlyprosperous career, one that has featured the winning catch in SuperBowl XXIII and three Super Bowl rings, but one that he has onlyrecently been willing to talk about publicly. Five-and-a-half yearsago, in the aftermath of media reports about a drug suspension thathe still disputes, Taylor stopped talking to reporters, which led tocertain misconceptions about him. ''You see him portrayed as amellow, low-key guy -- that persona is a farce,'' says Taylor's wife,Elayne. ''With him, there is no downtime. He's like a little boy.''He's also good at just about everything he does. Taylor is theteam's unofficial fourth-string quarterback and the star of theoff-season basketball team. An avid bowler, he carries a 205 averageand has a high game of 289. He also loves baseball -- so much so thatin two years he plans to retire from the NFL and pursue a MichaelJordan-esque run at the major leagues.Taylor, who grew up in Pennsauken, N.J., attended Johnson C. SmithUniversity in Charlotte and then Delaware State, where he walked onto the football team. He was drafted in the third round by the 49ersin 1986. Two years later, before the '88 season, Taylor testedpositive for cocaine and was issued a warning by the NFL. After asecond positive test result, which Taylor disputes, he was suspendedfor 30 days. He missed the season's first four games, then returnedwith a bang, making the Pro Bowl as a punt returner. He capped theseason by catching one of the most famous passes in NFL history, a10-yard spiral from Joe Montana with 34 seconds remaining in theNiners' Super Bowl XXIII victory over Cincinnati.Since then, Taylor has emerged as a star, a player who rivals Riceas a blocker and who equals all other receivers as a threat after theshort catch. But with three years left on his contract, Taylor isalready preparing for life after football. He recently purchased apair of 18-wheelers in preparation for launching his own truckingenterprise. ''I'll probably keep one truck out here and drive itmyself,'' he says.''Oh, it would be perfect,'' Elayne says. ''He loves to drive, andhe loves to listen to music real loud.'' And, of course, he loves topull the string and toot that horn.